finally took down Ghom. took me about 10 tries. twice he was down to less than 10% health then enraged. I went nuts and changed every skill into pure DPS, surprisingly that worked!
This is the first time ever that I actually feel a sense of accomplishment in this game.

I keep checking back to see some posts I want to respond to, but mostly just people complaining.

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that's why i stopped posting... because i have nothing good to say and didn't want to ruin it for everyone else.

honestly though i am so very disappointed in this game i don't even know how to put it into words. I simply can not see how anyone can consider this a true successor to the series. it has been lobotomized and neutered beyond recognition. it was fun for 40 or so hours, and as Kreij has highlighted time and again - 40-60 hours for a $60 is no slouch. however, 40 hours before boredom sets in with a diablo game? that is simply unacceptable imo.

idk, I still enjoy the game, but it is def not where it should have been

My cousin though, was fed up and quit, he did have ~140 hours played at LEAST. But he's the kind of guy that sticks to a game for at least 6~9 months and diablo 2 was a game we sticked with for many years, not a few months

OH there is no question that far fewer people are playing. I know that has a lot to do with AH liquidity. Not to mention all the bad patches, lack of end game, and horrible loot tables....yet I still play.

that's why i stopped posting... because i have nothing good to say and didn't want to ruin it for everyone else.

honestly though i am so very disappointed in this game i don't even know how to put it into words. I simply can not see how anyone can consider this a true successor to the series. it has been lobotomized and neutered beyond recognition. it was fun for 40 or so hours, and as Kreij has highlighted time and again - 40-60 hours for a $60 is no slouch. however, 40 hours before boredom sets in with a diablo game? that is simply unacceptable imo.

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I do exactly what you have been doing when I'm not enjoying a game anymore. And I think at the hours you got invested, 40 is a bit low, I can see how you would be disappointed. But it gets my goat when I know some of these people are griping when they got 100 hours into the game, not many games now days get you that much playtime, and if they do, at that point I'm happy to say I got my monies worth and move onto the next title rather than complain about it.

I personally felt the same way about D2 as you feel about this game though Guess it's just all at how you look at it. I know D2 had a bit more replay-ability if leveling interested you. But I was more after atmosphere, D1 was so dark, and I see that back in this game. I didn't really enjoy D2 much and having that atmosphere back I really enjoy this. But yeah, it's just all how you look at the different aspects of the game.

Now that Diablo III has been out for two months, I would like to take a step back and discuss the launch, the feedback from the community, and talk about what the future holds for the game.

We’ve had an enormous amount of feedback since the launch. I speak for everyone at Blizzard when I say that we appreciate the passion and affection many of you have for the Diablo series. We truly believe “Every Voice Matters,” so I want to thank you for sharing your experiences in an effort to help us improve the game. Your support makes it possible for us to continue doing what we do, and we never take that for granted.

The launch week of Diablo III was memorable for many reasons — some positive, and some not so positive. We were thrilled that Diablo III had the biggest PC-game launch ever, surpassing the lifetime sales of Cataclysm (the previous record holder for biggest PC-game launch) in a matter of weeks. We’ve been floored by the response.

However, the launch had many challenges as well. It has always been difficult to forecast how many players we will have. With World of Warcraft, it was a challenge to handle the immediate demand when we launched back in 2004, and that was just in North America. We eventually expanded to other regions and reached nearly 5 million players by the end of the first year, and there were a lot of growing pains with that. However, we’ve never gone from 0 to more than 6 million players across multiple continents within a few days with a brand-new game. For Diablo III, we looked at historical sales for Blizzard games and other top-selling PC games and watched preorder numbers. We even upped our estimates to ensure we had additional capacity, or so we thought. In the end, it just wasn’t enough, and that is something we will work hard to conquer for future releases.

In response to the immediate and overwhelming demand for the game, the team worked around the clock to support all regions, increase capacity, ship additional hardware to our datacenters, and troubleshoot and fix bugs as they sprang up. While things have by and large been running smoothly for several weeks now, various game-related issues have come up that we have either already responded to or are continuing to investigate (such as the latency issue some of you are experiencing) and make adjustments for. Rather than address every subject individually, I’ll just say that even as we work to address or resolve current issues, it’s always possible that further issues will crop up. We hope that our actions in the past have demonstrated that above all else, we’re committed to delivering an awesome game experience, and we hope you’ll have faith that we will continue to keep that commitment and respond to any new or outstanding issues quickly.

We are not satisfied with breaking launch records; we want people to continue playing and enjoying Blizzard games for a very long time. The Diablo III team has made an epic, entertaining, and beautiful gaming experience. That being said, we know that it isn’t perfect. Our teams are working hard to improve the game balance, build on our design, and listen to what players are saying to make it the best game it can be.

You’ve seen some of that work already in patch 1.0.3, and you’ll see additional improvements with patch 1.0.4. On the game balance front, this update will contain changes designed to further deliver on the team’s goal of promoting “build diversity,” with buffs to many rarely used, underpowered class abilities. Another topic we’ve seen actively discussed is the fact that better, more distinct Legendary items are needed. We agree. Patch 1.0.4 will also include new and improved Legendary items that are more interesting, more powerful, and more epic in ways you probably won’t be expecting.

We’re also working on a number of interface updates, including social improvements that will allow players to more easily view their friends’ achievements, more quickly join games, and more efficiently communicate with each other. In addition, we’ll be making updates to the auction house in the future to provide players with better information through tooltips and notices, offer improved search functionality, and more.

Regarding the real-money auction house, our primary goal for including this in the game was to provide convenience and peace of mind for those players who might otherwise turn to third-party services to buy items. Black market trading sites can put accounts at risk and create many customer service challenges. We felt that the players themselves also deserved the opportunity to benefit from the extra loot they found, as opposed to having all of the benefit go to the black market/illegal trading organizations. We know the auction house isn’t perfect, but with your help and feedback, we’ll be able to continue making it a better experience for those who choose to use it. On the flipside, we are also committed to ensuring you have a great experience with Diablo III without feeling like the auction house is mandatory, which was never our intention. Thank you for all the feedback about that.

One other common topic we’ve seen in the forums is the always-connected experience, and the perception that the online requirement is nothing but an ineffective form of copy protection that has already been cracked. While we’ve never said that this requirement guarantees that there will be no cheating or game cracks, it does help us battle those problems (we have not found any fully functional cracks). More important to us is that the online requirement is critical for the long-term integrity of the game experience. I fully understand the desire to play Diablo III offline; however, Diablo III was designed from the beginning to be an online game that can be enjoyed with friends, and the always-online requirement is the best way for us to support that design. The effectiveness of the online elements — including the friends list and cross-game communication; co-op matchmaking; persistent characters that you can use by yourself, with others, and in PvP; and some of our customer support, service, and security components — is tied directly to the online nature of the game. These and other online-enabled features are essential to our design for Diablo III. That said, there are still improvements we believe we can make to expand the online experience and make co-op play even more rewarding, and this will remain one of our priorities moving forward. Overall, while there are some downsides to the online-only approach, I still believe this was the best long-term decision for the game.

I know many of you are also looking forward to patch 1.1, our PvP update, which will provide new experiences and give you a whole new way to apply the skills you’ve picked up while battling demons. This patch will also build on the social and auction house changes I mentioned above, and the team will continue to fix bugs and further tune game balance as well.

We’re also working on a gameplay system that will provide players who have max-level, high-powered characters new goals to strive for as an alternative to the “item hunt.” We’re not ready to get into specifics just yet, but I can say that we’re actively taking your feedback into account as we plan out the future of the game.

As always, we appreciate your candor and passion. Your constructive feedback and thoughts are valuable — they will continue to help us be a better company. I just want to reiterate that while we can’t claim to have ever shipped a perfect game, we are committed to supporting our games relentlessly and making improvements where we can. Thank you for your support.

in other words - we hear your complaints but are going to ignore them, because we already know what's best. we'll tell you we appreciate your input, and then explain why we're right and you are wrong. **pat pat**

Hi guys. I need sum advice please. More specifically for my barbarian. Im in act 1 inferno and have been for many weeks. Im looking forward to going into act 2 and 3 and wanted to know the best builds for these acts. Including weapons-dual or single, skills and all round general knowledge so i can proceed further. I dont think i wana go and read all 112 pages. Thanks.

Because the balancing act for PvP will directly effect your ability to progress through the game in PvE. Once Blizzard starts playing the numbers game with class abilities for the sake of PvP combat, it usually doesn't end well for the PvE side.

Hi guys. I need sum advice please. More specifically for my barbarian. Im in act 1 inferno and have been for many weeks. Im looking forward to going into act 2 and 3 and wanted to know the best builds for these acts. Including weapons-dual or single, skills and all round general knowledge so i can proceed further. I dont think i wana go and read all 112 pages. Thanks.

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To get more specific, depends really on what build you prefer. All I can say are general things (and I've only been able to reach up to Maghda in Inferno). Get at least 500 resist, 25k HP, 10k DPS, 6k armor. In my case I have around 600 resist, almost 30k HP, 15k DPS, and 7k armor. Remember life on hit too, although I only have around 352 LoH. Thorns are a great bonus too, I have 1290 thorns damage for my barb.

Because the balancing act for PvP will directly effect your ability to progress through the game in PvE. Once Blizzard starts playing the numbers game with class abilities for the sake of PvP combat, it usually doesn't end well for the PvE side.

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it's been made clear since before release, that pvp and pve balance are two different things, so: no.